


Controlling a Prison

by ThisOne16050



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 22:11:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13350549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisOne16050/pseuds/ThisOne16050





	Controlling a Prison

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I should’ve saved him. I’m sorry.

* * *

 

My name? I suppose I really should start my story with that. Where are my manners? My name is Jemma Bryer, though there’s no need for formalities. Call me Jem if you wish.

 

Honestly, I look just like your average high schooler from the way I cut my drab brown hair to my fashion sense which includes plenty of sweatshirts and jeans. I have the same issues as a high schooler, for the most part, except for the fact that there are problems with my best friend.

 

I’m not your average teenager if you couldn’t tell by that last sentence. I work for a council that’s trying to keep the world safe. Cliche, right? Anyways, I was sent to watch over a specific individual known as Cooper Lytle, keeping him in line with the abilities I possess which more or less includes. He’s normal for the most part or as normal as a teenager can get. The only thing that puts him aside is the fact he happens to be a prison for some horrible monster that even I don’t know much about.

 

At some point, the world decided to hate him specifically and the council sent me in to attempt to keep him under some kind of control. Something about keeping him sedated, whatever that means. Either way, I didn’t intend for him to become my best friend and it’s bad to the point where my girlfriend is jealous. (Someone help me, please.) His personality is annoyingly infectious though. To think that someone so cheerful and smiley could be hiding some kind of sinister being.

* * *

 

It started out like any normal day. I got up begrudgingly and ate a very unhealthy breakfast of a poptart and endured a taxing walk of a whole three blocks to my prison for the next seven hours. On average, I have a fairly decent day at school. Everything changed the second I stepped into my fourth-period class.

 

He was different.

 

Normally, Cooper would be up and about socializing while keeping his voice at a very comfortable yell. I found him sitting quietly at his desk, downcast and staring out the window with dulled gray eyes. Suspicious. Very suspicious. I don’t think that I’ve ever actually seen him like this and that’s worrying considering whatever thing that he happens to be containing. It’s unlike the normal creepy episodes which happen. I don’t know what to do.

 

The only thing I could think of was to approach him the way I do every day, with a smile and a small wave from across the room. He didn’t actually notice me at first with his contentedness at staring out the pane of glass into a world of freedom. When he did, he looked surprised, almost as if he didn’t even notice I was there until a minute after I stopped. His tone seems a bit dull as he greets me and the smile he gives is mostly fake. Something is definitely off.

 

“Coop, what’s wrong?” It had to be asked and I hate using a mom voice on him. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that’ll get him moving and he calls me the five-year-old. Rude.

 

“You know how things are at home.”

 

Yes. I do know how it is, His parents fight a lot as I’ve been able to watch over the three years that I’ve known him. We hung out at his house freshman year up until the moment things got a bit too hot to handle. (I thought I could help him make home normal in a sense, but we ended up moving hangouts to my place.) “Is it getting worse? You know you’re always welcome to stay at my house. You know my parents have no issue with you.”

 

“It was just louder this morning. I’m pretty sure that I can handle it”.

He didn’t sound stressed, but the lights that flickered overhead could have said otherwise. It seemed this conversation was keeping him at ends or exhausting him further. Not good. We can’t keep talking like this. I can’t risk it getting free.

 

I have the perfect plan. “After school, how about we go to the park or something? You know you can get some photography in. You know you want to”. This will for sure get him cheery again, but I wonder how long he’ll hold out. The thing trapped in him tends to make every situation worse. I feel like it just creates this air of bad luck around him.

 

Revised plan. He’s not the scholarly type and his parents couldn’t care less. My parents aren’t really my parents. It’s like being adopted and not considering I kind of appeared one day and they have injected memories of adopting me the day before. That’s just how the council functions. I’m getting off topic. My new plan is probably a bit dumb, but I think the R and R are way more important than that. “Or, we could always go after lunch. You know you want to.” Considering I find this school lacking the means to keep my attention, I kind of wanted to too.

 

“I guess we can. It doesn’t really matter too much to me. It’s better than being in the place that makes me think about dropping out.” Now, this right here happens to be a problem considering he doesn’t sound too interested. Mayday! I shouldn’t really be complaining though since it’s not like I have to really force him to do something that is technically bad and could get us in a lot of trouble. (I’ll let the council handle the principal technicalities. I just need the time to send a decent email. Not sure how intergalactic beings get an email, but I’m not complaining.)  

* * *

 

Well, we skipped after a drab 45 minutes of a teacher droning on about the interesting things that happened to dead people in 1861. I would love this kind of stuff, don’t get me wrong, but that monotonous voice and comb-over could make anyone pass out within two seconds. I couldn’t get him out of that boring little room fast enough and out the doors into some fresh air. The sad part was that day could have reflected the mood in the class: dull and dreary almost. The sky was this gray as if it would rain, but the clouds were holding out and casting this shadow on everything. At least the town had some energy to it or I probably would have fallen asleep standing (which I can might I add).

 

Speaking of sleep, it looked like Cooper could use some. His eyes were half-lidded and I had to usher him around. I guess this is better than before, but then again, it still made him eerily quiet. I still don’t like it. Maybe some food or something will end up cheering him up. Does that work? I’m not very cut out for sympathy and dealing with feelings believe it or not.

 

With the thought of food in mind, I found the nearest McDonald’s. I know what you’re thinking, but a double cheeseburger, some fries, and a shake sounded pretty dang good (if their shake machine was working by some bit of magic and sorcery. Junk food sounded like the perfect medicine, expect there was a line inside. Then, as to be expected, the machine was “broken”. (We know that’s a lie.) After that, we were sitting down for a while which might as well have been an eternity because they ended up “forgetting”. The only positive side of the endeavor was the fact Cooper got in a good nap at the booth we had decided to sit at.

 

Let me just tell you now that waking this one up happens to be one of the most difficult things in the universe. I probably looked like some kind of psychopath as I violently shook him in some attempt to rouse him from his hundred-year slumber.

 

Thankfully, it didn’t take the hour that it felt like, but I might as well have created a quarter pounder devouring zombie. I think he ate half of it in a single bite while I was nibbling on a fry. Absolutely terrifying. The only plus was that he was more likely within the next few minutes. He went as far as throwing a fry at me which I had to fish out of my shirt. I was going to need a shower considering there was now salt, but I didn’t mind much for the simple fact the world had dodged a bullet.

By the time the two of us left, I’m sure the crew hated us with a dear passion. We cleaned up as best as we could, but remnants of the food war we had somewhere within that house were scattered within the section. Oops. It would probably be for the best we don’t walk into that establishment for quite a while. No need to embarrass ourselves more even though we are two halves of the same idiot.

 

Still, what we needed happened to be a speedy escape to the park which left me gasping for air. I never was much of a runner at any moment, but I considered it a miracle we didn’t have to go all the way to my house to retrieve Cooper’s camera. He always had it on his person, as per usual, so the second we entered a picture worthy area, you could hear the click of the camera. There were older individuals enjoying the wonderfully dull weather, the college guy who’s always sailing boats in the pond, and evil brown feathery nuggets of death. Guess what Cooper decided to photograph first: ducks. He was always willing to take pictures of the ducks that seem to hate everyone, but him. I guess they sense the evil and decide to cooperate.

 

Cooper could spend hours like this and I honestly would let him just to keep him pleased. It was quiet and peaceful other than the constant shutter of his camera. He found such amusement, but there honestly was only so much ankle-biting that I could take after two hours. These ducks had it out for me and I think it’s because I threw a rock at one a week ago. I couldn’t do anything about it! It was annoying and wanted my ankles for dinner. Plus, speaking of dinner, I was peckish again and we needed to at least do some homework. Cooper did happen to be failing one of his classes.

 

“Don’t you think it’s about time to do at least some of our assignments? One subject at the very least. It’s the least that we can do after missing half a day of school. We can go to the movies or the mall. It’ll probably be an hour after school ends by the time that we’re done. We can meet up with Conrad and Skye afterward.”

 

“You just want to see your girlfriend before she gets mad at you and you also are trying to set me up with a friend.”

 

“You’re not wrong about the first part, but I said that I stopped shipping that kind of thing before. Anyways, I said that you two would be cute if you were into guys. You make one mistake and this is what happens. Ugh.”  This conversation was going nowhere good and I think that we all know that. Subject change. Whatever. “We’ll figure out some kind of plan later… Not really. You have your stuff, right?”

 

He groaned and you could hear his dread from a mile away. Should I abort this mission?  Well, I couldn’t really since there wasn’t much to do since we had to do at least a little bit of school stuff, but still.

 

“My book’s at home. I left it there this morning. I was thinking about just dealing with not having it during class and doing the assignment for it later tonight when there’s actual quiet in the house. They’re probably both home now.”

 

“We can stop by real quick to get it. It’ll take like two seconds. I think we both know the art of sneaking into your room via the window. Plus, I can be the one to grab it if you want. There’s nothing wrong with it, though your mom might throw a shoe at me like she did the last time. I don’t blame her though. I am a random stranger for the most part”. Never did really have a decent conversation with his parents. We used to avoid them pretty much all the time. It was the best course of action before things really did get too hot to handle.

 

Still, I had been hoping that he actually brought everything that he needed for once. I guess the Fates were against me on this one. My prayer had been rejected and I didn’t think that there was going to be some kind of price to pay because of it. For now, it was just an uneventful walk to his house.  


We heard the yelling much before we saw the front door. His parents, when they were arguing, weren’t the quiet kind of people. It was a miracle the cops hadn’t been cal-

 

A crash. Cooper had left my side long before I could even process what the heck was happening. Whatever clutter had fallen, wasn’t good and I wasn’t too far behind him as he burst through the thankfully unlocked door.

 

The sight which we found in the kitchen could have been considered troublesome to some kind of understatement. Pots and pans lay everywhere while the countertops were this disarray of grocery bags.His mother had this look of disgust planted on her face along with a cherry red handprint on her cheek. That soon turned into some kind of rage as her husband looked at her like some kind of cornered animal as if he couldn’t believe what he had just done.

 

Neither Cooper nor I had much time to react before she picked something off the counter and threw it at him. It looked to be one of those smaller pans that you could use to cook eggs in small portions. Either way, it his Mr. Lytle. The man had his hands over his face, but there was no way that something like a metal pan didn’t hurt.

 

I was about to step in now that I really knew who to stop, but my concern had to shift to the flickering of the lights around us. I could feel the anger and power that had started to radiate off my best friend. I was losing him and there wasn’t much I could do.

 

He moved with a speed that I had never seen before, grabbing his mother by the neck and holding her up. She was choking and he was applying more pressure without batting an eye… speaking of eyes, his were different. Besides this obvious hate, they were like that of a goat’s and amber in color. This was the demon that he happened to be hiding and it was clear it was unleashed with his vexation.

 

Everything stopped the second that his mother died. “Puny mortal.” The words he uttered were like static in my ears as I watched my best friend murder his mother by snapping her neck. The crack cut through the room like a freshly sharpened blade that might as well have pierced my heart with grief. He was lost.

* * *

 

None of his episodes had driven him to kill anyone. None of them had radiated with so much pressure. The lights popped and windows fragmented, showering us all with pieces of glass. His father looked horrified and all I could really do was stand there in disbelief. I let this happen. How could I have let this happen to my best friend? I failed him and I was about to pay the piper.

 

A torrent of wind erupted almost as if a tornado had begun to form within the small space. Groceries flew off the counter, fruits slamming into the wall with a brutal force and canned goods turning the walls into swiss. Cooper’s dad was out of the room in a heartbeat and probably screaming down the road about his crazy possessed son. How long did I have before the cops showed up? M Five minutes? I didn’t need them interfering, but this wasn’t going to be easy.

 

I hadn’t the foggiest idea how I was supposed to stop this thing other than the method I dreaded most. I was running into another situation without any foresight. It’s probably what led me to simply running at him, my abilities awakening. It had been quite a while since I felt the familiar tingle of electricity shooting through every nerve in my body, but this was going to be my advantage.

 

I was the one to throw the first punch, though you could say the effort happened to be in vain at that moment. My fist never made contact with Cooper’s stomach as I had intended. That thing was expecting it. Instead, my hand was grabbed and stopped dead in its tracks. I didn’t have much time to react before there was a hand on my forearm. I was tugged along one second and thrown the next.

 

There was a sharp pain that rocked my very existence. I was hurt, but I was also pissed, adrenaline allowing me to move to my elbows and then not much later my hands and knees with broken glass on the floor biting into my skin with some kind of vengeance. Before I really had time to comprehend it, there I was standing. Sparks crackled around me and the air filled with static. I was pissed at this thing. I was pissed at the world. I was pissed at myself. Everything had built up and it was time to simply release it.

 

To think my mood could worsen even more so. It was just this thing had the audacity to laugh me as it finally decided to hold a conversation with me. “Pest, so mad and unable to save her friend. You couldn’t even accomplish the job you were assigned, though I suppose I should thank you for that one. You have given me a very nice vessel.” It was smirking and what made it worse was the fact it was on Cooper’s normally cheery face.

 

I was hurt, but for the sake of my best friend, this needed to end.

 

With tears in my eyes, I unleashed the true potential of the abilities I possessed. Lightning sparked around me like a miniature storm as I accepted just what needed to be done. All my sorrow, my anger, my guilt was channeled through the sparks. It coursed through every vein in my body, rushing towards my fingertips for my use. I thrust my palm right into what was left of my best friend, aiming the blow straight for his heart.

 

It hit. That was the end of my tale.

* * *

 

I looked up at the council that was listening to my recounting of events about how their guard had become the executioner. Their disapproving gazes were all I needed to see to know that I failed my mission and yet I still had to give the report of the aftermath.

 

“The lightning struck him in the heart, stopping it. Since the being had taken over his body in a weakened state, it also gained his mortal frailty. It didn’t have the chance to evolve into its true form. I killed it, but the destruction was catastrophic.” The human world knew of the presence of the ungodly and it was my fault. “His father recounted the events before everything could get cleaned up. There was no other logical explanation for what had happened and there seemed to be trace amounts of strange energy. I was forced to leave the corpse of Cooper there. The burn marks in his chest were another clear identifier”.

 

The grief that I felt that day came rushing to me with every word I spoke. In this moment, tears pooled in my eyes and fell like a torrent. There was nothing more I could do to state my case and yet I still spoke before the council declared their final verdict.

 

“This wasn’t supposed to happen. I should’ve saved him. I’m sorry.”

  

  
  
  



End file.
